Conversational code-switching

Abstract

Rules of speaking and, more generally, norms of interaction are both culture-specific and largely unconscious. People who are bilingual often switch from one of their codes or languages to the other without being in the least aware of this. In this article the aspect of code-switching in an urban situation is discussed. It shows that the fluent alternation between two languages normally requires a high level of bilingual competence. Code-switching involves enough knowledge of two (or more) grammatical systems to allow the speaker to draw from each system only those rules which the other shares, when alternating one language with another.